Guest Reviews - 4

In Space

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Here's a fourth guest review of Ventures albums. This one is by fellow Ventures fan Tony Meloche.]

"All of these unusual and other-worldy sounds have been created with musical instruments rather than electronic gimmics."

So ran a proud disclaimer on the back of a Dolton album that entered the Billboard charts on February 15th, 1964. Mankind was preparing, in five short years, to take a quantum leap - a man on the moon. And with this album, released immediately after "Let's Go!", but light-years removed from it, the Ventures took their own "quantum leap".

The lure of space was an everyday conversational topic at this time. Rock instrumentals of the surf school were already experimenting with the concept when the Ventures entered the studio to record this album in the fall of 1963. Produced by Bob Reisdorff, and involving more extra personnel than anything the Ventures had recorded up to this point, the album was also the debut of the Ventures playing Semie Moseley's new "Ventures" model Mosrite guitar. The Mosrite, in Nokie Edwards hands, had already put in an appearance (uncredited) on a few of the songs on "Let's Go!" (according to Edwards), but now became the Ventures "official" guitar for the next five years. Your author is a guitarist, and someday hopes to own a Ventures model Mosrite (I have played one - it is phenomenal), but the instrument owed it's basic design to the Ventures standard instrument, the Fender Jazzmaster, which I already own. One of the big differences between it and the Jazzmaster, however was the original Moseley pickup: a single coil pickup wound very "hot", as guitarists would say. That slightly "broken glass" edge to the sound would be prominent in the Ventures next few albums, and it suited Nokie Edwards right down to the ground. The rest of the story evolved in the studio, to wit:

The album opens with the strongest song of the 12 - an amazing rendition of the Marketts already-intrenched hit "Out of Limits". I well remember my pulse skyrocketing the first time I heard this. As usual, the Ventures take another groups success and give the listener the *definitive* version of it. With the lead guitar intro, saturated with reverb, rapid tremelo, and (it sounds like) "chorus", then a new studio tool, we are immediately launched into space. Organ and French Horn also join in the excellent arrangement (all of which were done by the Ventures themselves, incidentally) to make a finished product that makes the Marketts version - to this listener - sound like a sock-hop band. Amazing sound.

Track two is a Ventures original, "He Never Came Back". Here, the jaws of some unnamed space creature open wide, courtesy of a guitar pick dragged down the string, ending with (probably) Don Wilson doing his best horror movie scream. Almost hidden by the special effect is an excellent minor-key rock guitar solo. A strong album cut.

Track three is a contribution to the album by well-respected studio musician and composer Julius Wechter, (and his wife Cissy), called "Moon Child". Wechter was a regular with Herb Alpert, and also fronted his own group, the Baja Marimba Band, but Wilson and Bogle credit him with many of the "other-worldly" sounds in this album, along with Red Rhodes (more below). "Wechter came up with the damndest things", they said in an interview. Few special effects here, though - a beautiful tune, with strong tremelo in both lead and rhythym guitars, and a good soprano unconciously forseeing the theme from "Star Trek", some two years down the road yet. Listen to Mel's drumming - the finest combination of power and urgency mixed with genuine restraint I have ever heard, (though part of the credit must go to Reisdorff, I'm sure). Beautiful tune. Listen carefully all the way through the fade-out at the end, and you will hear Nokie hit a sour note - accident or tongue-in-cheek?

Track four brings us to "Fear", the main title from a fairly succesful '60's TV show called "One Step Beyond" (think "Twilight Zone" imitator). The first chorus goes to the Hammond B-3, recorded so close to the speaker that the "thunk" of the keys in their beds can be heard. Bass enters, along with tiny finger cymbals accenting the rhytym (Mel, or an assistant?). Second chorus takes us down a fifth to a beautiful interplay between Nokie and Don - literally a "shared lead" - the Hammond now murmuring quietly in the background. The high vibrato-dipped notes in the background were probably Bob Bogle on a third six-string (in normal studo technique, the bass line is one of the first things laid down, and would have already been on the master tape by then). Final chorus is up a fourth again, with all preceding instruments and the addition of our soprano (who got a workout on this album!) The eerie "outer space" feel contiues unabated from the opening cut.

Track five is another Ventures original, "Exploration in Terror", distinguished by a Chinese gong sound throughout. Also heard is the "rushing wind" sound, which I am at a loss to explain. There is a "wind machine" device, but it would seem contary to the Ventures stated aim in this album - to create all sounds with musical instruments as the original source. Good original tune from Nokie, though - a perfect dectective show or "late-movie" theme. The tune is an album filler, but as I mentioned in an earlier review - would that all album "fillers" were this good.

Side one closes with Danny Hamilton's "War of the Satellites". Hamilton was a good friend of all the Ventures, (they also recorded his "Diamond Head" and had great success with it), and later a member of Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds. This great tune, (with rocket-propelled drumming by Mel!) relies on the more standard studio techniques for an outer-space sound: Intense treble, very deep reverb, and I think I detect a dab of chorus again. Throughout their careers, the Ventures were at the forefront of the latest in sound technology - it is well known that they were using the "fuzz tone" at least two years before the rest of the world became aware of it with the Rolling Stones "Satisfaction". Our soprano earns hear paycheck yet again in this solid number.

Side two begins with Lou Forbes' "The Bat". Here is the first prominent entrance of the much-revered studio steel guitarist Red Rhodes. Fortunately, Rhodes was just as interested in new and exciting paths in the recording studio as he was in his own genre (he was a good-old country boy), and he dived willingly into the world of strong tremelo, "splash" reverb and the Leslie rotating speaker. His contribution to this album cannot be over-emphasized. Without Red, the Ventures would have had to resort to the theramin, a horror-flick staple, but not a true musical instrument - an electronic "gimmic". The Beach Boys would later make the theramin famous with "Good Vibrations", though. The impossibly long, long "slide" heard several times in the recording is Red - not to underestimate the contributions of the other Ventures who play fabulously in this very complex number. Great choice for a lead-off to side two! Listen to Nokies solo - "Anything Beck can do, I can do better".

Track two is yet another excellent example of why the Ventures were, well, "The Ventures". The Pyramids hit "Penetration" is another pulse-pounder on the order of "Out of Limits" *Fuel-injected* drumming from Mel, a deliciously heavy bass, rapid slides from Red, and our hard-working soprano come together to make yet again the definitive version of this tune - yet the character of the original is never lost, only expanded upon, no small feat. The Pyramids were a bizzare instrumental group of the time, all shaved bald, and naming their tunes, for the most part, after . . . ah . . ."romantic interlude" terms ("Penetration", "Contact", "Interlude", etc).

With track three of side two, your reviewer parts ways with many Ventures fans. I admire Don Wilson as a person and a musician more than I can tell you, but Don was very fond of guitar ballads, and I am not. His original tune here "Love Goddess of Venus" is as good as anything he ever wrote, but is a "skip" in my CD programming. He played lead (very nicely) himself on this tune, and the girl voices are at work again, fittingly to the theme - but I defer ultimate judgement on this tune to others who can judge it more objectively than I can.

Track four brings us to "Solar Race", which sounds to me, again, as at least one cut per album does, like an expansion on studio "noodling" (playing around with fragments of musical ideas). Much more difficult to play than it sounds, this fine instrumental holds the listeners interest from start to finish - with a brief Mel Tayor solo thrown in as a bonus. The "dissolve" effect at the end is very tasty!

Track five is "The Fourth Dimension", with Red Rhodes helping out considerably, aided by a volume pedal. Very "space", very atmospheric, and very well done. This and many other cuts on the album, give good evidence on how hard the Ventures worked in the studio to achieve exactly the sound they wanted.

The album closes with Marty Manning's famous "Twilight Zone" theme. All stops out on the special effects here! With careful listening, you can identify the origin of almost all of the sounds, but don't forget to include Julius Wechter on the marimba (he's in there, too!) Much like the "Pink Panther" theme on "The Fabulous Ventures", this is very true to the original, but still with the unmistakeable Ventures touch. Another "How in the heck ... ?" ending, too!

A quantum leap - the Ventures never looked back, and entered the finest period in the studio they ever had, in this reviewers opinion, with this ground-breaking album. Like Sgt. Pepper, (even if not as well-known), this was a whole new avenue - and the Ventures took their fans down it happily for the next several years. Good listening to you, until next time.

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Last Updated: January 1, 2003